The works explore the temporality of life as waterscapes in Chicago and salt pans of Marakkanam on the outskirts of Chennai. The hybrid patterns and architectonic shapes are collaborations between man and nature: skyscrapers, water, salt, sun, man and sea. Just as the river reflections capture a moment in time that is ephemeral, the salt pans, laboriously made by people only last a while. The deliberate exclusion of humans brings a surreal quality to the landscapes, as if we are visiting a lost planet. The reflections in the Chicago River are printed on Type C color in brilliant hues. The images of salt pans printed on silver gelatin brings out the luminous whites.
Dr Ashrafi Bhagat writes, "The photographs of salt pans at Marakkanam or the reflections of Chicago skyscrapers in water are not documentary records. An inherent philosophy strongly laces their works. This is the transience of life with its ephemeral qualities of time, light and place as visualized metaphorically through the salt pans born of time and water, yet susceptible to complete obliteration if the sky opens up or, the manmade, steely skyscrapers, majestic in their awesome height, which as reflections, melt into water."
EXHIBITING ARTIST
Sujatha Shankar Kumar, Writer & Photographer: A furniture designer who found her passion in writing and photography, Sujatha is a graduate of NID, Ahmedabad (1991) and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA,1998). Her photographic work explores the poetic qualities of places, animating the inanimate through storytelling, invented mythologies and abstract geometry.